Zagg was nice enough to send me a full body cover for the Nintendo DS Lite. I decided that I would request one so that I could provide a review on an item that isn’t such a top seller. Everyone knows that the Invisible Shield works great for the iPhone and the Ipod Touch. Now lets see how it works on the other 2,998 products they cover. Hopefully by the end of this review you will have a better understanding of how much damage an Invisible Shield can take and if it’s worth the money.

The box that the Invisible Shield will come in looks like this:

Inside of the box you will find for this specific cover 3 sheets of pieces precut to fit your Nintendo DS Lite which will cover both your Nintendo DS body and your Nintendo DS Screens:

You will also be given a “Install Squeegee” and a bottle of “SHIELDspray”

If you have never done an Invisible Shield before Zagg supplies you with directions on the inside of the box. There are 7 steps to follow and it’s all pretty forward the only lack of directions is when applying the actual shield to your Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS is by far the most complicated Invisible Shield that I have ever installed. They are about 15 pieces and they do not provide any sort of direction on where you are to place them. It’s up to you to guess. Most of the pieces are fairly easy to figure out but a few can get tricky specifically the ones that are just straight strips, I recommend leaving those until the very end.  Below are the directions supplied by Zagg:

You will have to repeat this whole process for every piece supplied. For some products you will get as little as 1 piece, but as I have already mentioned with a cover like the Nintendo DS Lite you will find yourself doing this multiple times. I have a few tips for putting on the shield which I feel are very important if you want to do it right:

1. Make sure you are in a very clean room with as little dust or lint as possible.
2. Turn off anything that could be blowing air such as a fan or your air conditioning this will help prevent dust from finding it’s way to your shield.
3. Make sure you clean your device with a lint free cloth before you do anything. It seems like anything under the Invisible Shield is magnified x10. Dust is really noticeable especially on white screens and it’s really annoying.
4. Make sure you pinch down every corner. If you find that a corner keeps rolling up don’t ignore it. I suggest stopping your whole process and waiting for it to dry even if it means waiting 24 hours. Once a corner is messed up on an Invisible Shield it won’t be long before that whole piece falls off or gains enough dust under it to make you want to peel it off.
5. Don’t use too much spray, it makes it impossible for the corners to fold over correctly.
6. Take your time to get it perfect. If the shield is not placed properly your find that it will start to peel up in the next few weeks.
7. If you are using the Nintendo DS Lite please note that the screens are NOT the same size. One is bigger than the other so be careful when applying your screen protectors.
8. If you get micro bubbles, don’t spend your time mashing your screen trying to get them out. They really do disappear in a few days.

Alright now that you hopefully have a understanding of the process you will be undergoing. I will show you how it went for me when I put it on my Nintendo DS Lite. Below is a picture of how my Nintendo DS looked before the Invisible Shield was over it, and after that will be a video showing you how it looks when it’s on from every angle.

The before pictures:

Now here is the video after it’s applied. Notice how It fits perfectly and all of the functions still work perfectly. Also I would like to point out in the video you can see that the speakers are NOT covered by the Invisible Shield and it does NOT fold up when you open the cover. There is a review floating around online where someone claims that this happens. This is not true at all. The only reason something like that would happen is because of user error:

Once you have the shield installed the most important question is how much does it really protect the device. Well I have taken a few videos of me trying to cause damage to the Nintendo DS Lite so you don’t have to! I have taken 3 damage test videos. The first damage test was done with multiple keys mixed with a lot of pressure, The second test was done with with a bit of change. I tried everything from spinning the coins on the DS to scraping it all around, and finally the test that I feel is the most convincing I used the top of a Pop can top to try and scratch the Invisible Shield. Check all of these out below:

The Keys:

The Coins:

The Pop can:

As you have probably already noticed the Invisible Shield does the Job. There are no scratches on my Nintendo DS Lite or on the Invisible Shield. Even when I used the Pop can top the most damage I noticed was an indent in the Invisible Shield, but with a few rubs I have managed to make that indent disappear in a matter of seconds. The Invisible Shield defiantly passes the damage test as far as scratches, but I am not sure how much you can depend on this for drop damage.

The next important question to address is how does it change the actual use of the Nintendo DS Lite. The first thing you will notice when you pick up your Nintendo DS Lite is that the Invisible Shield is extremely grippy. It’s really nice it feels good in your hands and it makes it a lot less likely to come falling to the floor. It might not be effective against drop damage, but it at least helps prevent you from dropping it! As far as the touch screen aspect I did not notice any difference in the function of the touch screen. My fingers as well as the styles both worked perfectly. I tested this by playing a few mini games from Mario Party DS which required a lot of stylus movement. I noticed absolutely no difference in touch response.

Overall I would give the Zagg Invisible Shield a 9.5/10

I honestly would have gave it a 10/10 because it does everything it claims perfectly, just with a few downsides that I feel bring it down to an 9.5. It does prevent scratches, but lacks drop protection so you still might need that bulky case at least for moving your device around. I also think its really annoying that they don’t give instructions for where the pieces go with complicated devices such as the Nintendo DS Lite, but that is no reason not to buy it it’s a wonderful product. It will protect your device better than anything I have ever tried to prevent scratches and it feels great in your hands. The extra grip it adds is something they don’t mention but I feel that it’s a real selling point. It doesn’t effect the touch screen on my Nintendo DS Lite nor does it on my LG Glimmer and iPod Touch so I believe it’s safe to say that this is true for all products, so don’t fear that. I would recommend this product to anyone looking to buy a case.

Cost: $24.95 for full body and $12.95 for screens only

Shipping: Starts at $2.99 sent via UPS

I’d say the price is right, You have to remember if your shield is ever to fail they will replace it for free!

Here is the link to purchase and get a

discount!:

Buy the invisibleSHIELD

If you use the link above and use the code “ZAGG20″ at the checkout your get 20% off your order!

If your planning on buying this and this review really helped you please think about using that link and the code. I get a little something if you use that link to purchase your InvisibleShield and you also save a little money with the code.